NEW DELHI, Dec 2: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pledged on Friday to probe new allegations that the country’s former foreign minister and ruling Congress party were involved in a scam to profit from a UN oil-for-food deal in Iraq.
“We are determined that truth must prevail in this matter,” the Congress party premier told parliament as opposition members jeered.
“Our government believes in maintaining high standards of probity and transparency in public life and I can assure the house that no one who is guilty will go unpunished,” he said.
The pledge followed allegations by India’s envoy to Croatia, Anil Maithrani, that former foreign minister Natwar Singh and Congress got special vouchers to purchase oil cheaply from Baghdad when the Congress party was out of power.
The statements, aired on Aaj Tak television, sparked chaos in parliament and demands for Natwar Singh to be prosecuted.
“The Iraqi embassy in Amman was a very key player.
“The Iraqis needed a green light, the green light was provided to them by Natwar Singh,” said Maithrani.
He worked closely with Natwar Singh in the Congress party, elected in 2004 as the head of a multi-party coalition, before being posted as ambassador to Croatia.
“One (oil voucher) was given to him (Singh) by name, the other one was given to the Congress party” during a visit to Iraq in January 2001, Maithrani said.
Singh led a four-member team to Iraq that included Maithrani.
“The fact of the matter is that both allottees ... in my view are exactly the same ... one has been (given) to Natwar and the other one to the Congress party.”
“One (was) for Natwar’s personal services. Don’t forget that he has been the one who has been espousing Iraq’s cause,” said Maithrani.
The fresh allegations followed a report by former US Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker to the UN in October that said former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein’s regime manipulated the oil-for-food programme to extract about 1.8 billion dollars in surcharges and bribes.
Volcker named Singh as a beneficiary of four million barrels of Iraqi oil allotted to Zurich-based firm Masefield AG.
Congressis also listed as a beneficiary of a separate allotment of four million barrels of oil as part of the transactions.—AFP
